Flooring, Carpets and Rugs

Carpets do not stay looking good forever and they get damaged with the rough and tumble of family life. You drop a candle and get a small burn in the carpet or a guest at your party leaves a cigarette burn and another spills a glass of red wine. The carpet starts to wear or suffer wrinkling. You think your carpet s ruined but do not think about replacing your carpet just because it no longer looks good. A carpet repair may be enough to have it looking as good as new.

You can carry out a lot of carpet repairs yourself. Not everything requires an expert but if, after reading about the various remedies for damaged and stained carpets here, you don’t feel confident about tackling the job yourself, then look for a professional carpet repair service which will certainly be able to do a good job for you. You do have to choose the right company however to make sure you will be happy with the results. See the section below on choosing a carpet cleaning or repair service for help with that.

Carpet Stain Repair

Stains are the most common kind of damage done to carpets around the home. It is so easy to knock over a glass of red wine or to trip and spill a cup of coffee and if you have kids you will have no end of stains and spills. Most of these can be handled easily yourself provided you act right away. Simply soak up any excess liquid with kitchen paper then use a carpet and upholstery cleaning product and squirt the stain to cover it with foam. After a few seconds work the foam into the carpet from the outside of the stain towards the center with a clean cloth. Once the carpet is dry, vacuum if necessary.

You can treat pet stains in the same way, however you may find that the odor from pets is more difficult to remove than stains. This can be a general problem if you have pets (dogs in particular) in your household. You may get used to the smell but your guests will notice it. For this problem, regular carpet shampooing is required. You can either buy a carpet shampooer so that you can tackle the job yourself or employ a professional carpet cleaning company every few months. This will keep your carpets clean and sweet smelling.

Carpet Burn Repair

With a small burn you may be able to tackle the problem if the burn is not too deep or the area too large. The newer the carpet (and the thicker and deeper the pile) the easier it is to repair a burn.

For minor burns you may be able to use a pair of sharp scissors to remove the darkened fibers. For this you need to take each fiber of the carpet and slowly cut away any burnt part from each one. Then brush the remaining strands into the rest of the carpet.

If the mark is still obvious or the burnt section is larger, then you (or your carpet repairer) will need to cut out the damaged section and replace it with a piece of spare carpet, either a carpet remnant you retained from the original installation or a hidden piece from an area such as a closet.

Cut out the burnt carpet in an even shape: square or rectangle is best. Use the cut piece of carpet as a template for cutting the piece from the carpet remnant. Make sure that the pile or nap is facing in the same direction as the original piece when you cut. Check that the “donor” piece fits neatly back into the hole and that the direction of the pile is correct. Use double sided carpet tape on the piece of carpet and press it firmly into place. To help it blend into to the original carpet place a heavy object such as a pile o books onto it for a few days to simulate wear and even things up.

Carpet Wrinkling Repair

If your carpet has started to look a bit loose and wrinkled then you need to take action as the problem with only get worse and a wrinkled carpet is not only unsightly, it is also dangerous as it present a tripping hazard. This kind of carpet repair is better tackled by a professional unless you are experienced and skilled in carpet installation. This is because carpet stretching is required and the carpet will need to be refitted carefully.

Worn carpet

There is generally little you can do with an area of worn carpet unless you have kept a carpet remnant or two from the original carpet. Then it might be possible for a professional carpet installer to replace the piece. Do remember that the existing carpet will not look quite the same as the remnant however which will not have faded or been walked on at all. It may just work in some rooms however depending on the color and the state of the rest of the carpet and whether an obvious join is important to you. If the damaged carpet can be covered by a floor rug without looking like the rug is in the wrong place you could also use this to cover a worn patch. With a worn stair carpet you may find that your carpet installer tucked extra carpeting into the end of the stair when it was first installed so that the carpet could be repositioned to even out wear. If so, then you can have the carpet refitted to the stairs to get a bit more wear out of it.

Carpet Fading

If the colors have faded in the sun you will generally need to replace your carpet. When choosing colors for a new carpet take care to choose a color which will still look OK if slightly faded or fit blinds or shutters on your windows to screen out strong sun when the room is not in use.

Carpet Dents

If you have placed heavy furniture on your carpet and subsequently move it you will be left with unsightly dents in the pile. Some of them may spring back over time but you can help them along by brushing the pile with a hard bristle brush to lift up the fibers a little or by placing a ice cube in the center of each dent and letting it melt and then dry or by steaming the carpet by holding a steam iron a little above the dent and gently brushing it while the steam does its work.

You can help prevent carpet dents before they happen by placing pieces of spare carpet under the legs of heavy furniture which you may want to move in the future.

Choosing a Carpet Repair Service

If you don’t have the time, the tools or the skill to carry out carpet repair or cleaning yourself call in the professionals. Personal recommendation is the best way to choose a professional carpet repair or cleaning service but failing that here are a few guidelines to look out for

• Does the service offer the kind of carpet repair you need : general cleaning, stain removal, stretching, burn repairs? If they do not specify these services on their web site or in their ads then it is probably not something they specialize in. Look for a company which is used to tackling the problem you have.
• Do they offer a guarantee on their work? What exclusions are there in the small print?
• Do they have insurance?
• Are they a licensed company and do they belong to a professional trade organization?
• Do they offer free estimates and does their pricing offer value for money?